Buying, Selling or Moving a Car in Germany: What Happens to Your Car Insurance

In Germany, car insurance is tied to the car, the keeper and the registration office far more closely than in many other countries. That is why the moments that cause the most confusion are not the yearly renewal but the life events: buying a car, selling one, moving to a new city, or taking a car off the road for a while.

Here is what happens to your insurance in each case, and what you need to do yourself.

Buying a car: the eVB number comes first

You cannot register a car in Germany without proof of third-party liability insurance (Kfz-Haftpflichtversicherung). That proof is the eVB, short for elektronische Versicherungsbestätigung. It is a seven-character code of letters and numbers. The first two characters identify the insurer.

You get the eVB from the insurer you choose, often within minutes if you apply online. It costs nothing. The registration office (Zulassungsstelle) uses the code to pull your insurance details electronically. You need a new eVB for:

• registering a new or used car in your name
• re-registering a car that was taken off the road
• short-term plates (Kurzzeitkennzeichen) for a test or transfer drive
• registering after a move to a different registration district, which many offices ask for

An eVB you request as a private person works for one registration only. Insurers set their own validity period, often a few months, and an unused code simply expires.

Two details are worth knowing before the registration appointment:

Liability cover starts with the registration. Under the standard terms published by the German insurance association (GDV), you have provisional liability cover once the insurer has given you the eVB, at the latest from the day the car is registered with it.

Comprehensive cover may not start at the same time. For Teilkasko or Vollkasko, the same model terms give provisional cover only if the insurer has explicitly agreed to it. If you are driving a newly bought car home and want it covered against theft or damage from day one, ask the insurer to confirm that in writing.

Buying a car that is still registered and insured

Private sales in Germany sometimes involve a car that is still registered to the seller. In that case, something surprising happens: the seller's insurance contract passes to you automatically when ownership changes. This is set out in § 95 of the Insurance Contract Act (VVG), and § 122 VVG applies the same rule to liability insurance.

You do not have to keep that contract. Under § 96 (2) VVG, you, as the buyer, can cancel it within one month of the purchase, either with immediate effect or for the end of the current insurance period. If you did not know the car was insured, the month starts when you find out.

In practice, most buyers simply take out their own policy. Under the GDV model terms, registering the car with a new insurer's eVB counts as cancelling the old contract, from the start of the new one. Check the seller's insurer's terms if you want to be sure.

The insurer can also end things. It may cancel the contract with the buyer with one month's notice, but must do so within one month of learning about the sale (§ 96 (1) VVG).

Note that the price of the transferred contract changes too. Under the GDV model terms, the insurer recalculates the premium using the buyer's own details, including the buyer's no-claims class. You do not inherit the seller's discount.

Selling a car: report the sale, and do it quickly

If you sell a car that is still registered and insured, the step you might expect, cancelling your policy, is usually the wrong one. The contract moves to the buyer. What the law asks of you is to report the sale.

§ 97 VVG says the seller or the buyer must tell the insurer about the sale without undue delay (unverzüglich). If nobody does, the insurer can, in certain cases, refuse to pay for a claim that happens more than a month after the notice should have arrived. Give the insurer the date of the sale (the time of the handover helps too) and the buyer's name and address. Keep a copy of the signed sales contract.

Two more points protect you as the seller:

Who pays for the current period. Until the contract is cancelled, seller and buyer are jointly liable for the premium of the period running at the time of the sale (§ 95 (2) VVG). If the buyer or the insurer cancels under § 96, only the seller owes the premium (§ 96 (3) VVG). In return, the insurer may only keep the share of the premium for the time the car was actually covered (§ 39 VVG).

Tell the registration office as well. Under § 15 (5) of the Vehicle Registration Ordinance (FZV), the previous keeper must report the change of keeper to the registration office, with the plate number, the buyer's full name and address, and the buyer's confirmation that they received the registration papers. You can skip this if the buyer has already re-registered the car, which the buyer must do without undue delay anyway. Vehicle tax also keeps running in your name until the car is transferred: according to the German customs administration (Zoll), the date of re-registration to the buyer is what ends your tax liability.

Many sellers avoid all of this by taking the car off the road before the handover. Then there is no contract to pass on, and the buyer registers the car with their own eVB.

If you want a written notice to your insurer in German, there is a free letter generator with a "car sold" option that writes the German letter with an English translation below it.

Your no-claims class stays with you, not the car

Your no-claims class, the Schadenfreiheitsklasse or SF-Klasse, belongs to your insurance history. When you sell one car and buy another, the GDV model terms let you move your history to the replacement car (Fahrzeugwechsel), even if you switch insurer at the same time.

What can hurt is a gap. Under the model terms:

• a break of up to six months has no effect
• a break of six to twelve months keeps your class as it was before the break, so the year without a car does not count as claim-free
• after more than twelve months, one claim-free year is removed for each further calendar year that has begun
• after more than seven years, the claim-free history is not carried over at all

If you are between cars for a while, the six-month mark is worth keeping in mind.

Family transfers are also possible. If you mainly drove a spouse's, partner's, parent's or child's car, that person can hand their no-claims history over to you. The model terms require a written statement from both of you and a copy of your licence, and the person who gives it up loses the discount completely. Insurers can deviate from the model terms, so ask yours how it handles these cases.

Moving within Germany: Ummeldung and the Regionalklasse

When you move to a new address, you must update the car's registration without undue delay (§ 15 FZV). Since 2015 you can keep your old number plate when you move to a different district. You only report the move to the office at your new main residence and have the registration certificate (Zulassungsbescheinigung Teil I) updated.

Keeping the plate does not keep your old premium, though. Part of the price of your policy is the Regionalklasse, a rating the GDV calculates every year for each of Germany's 413 registration districts. What counts is the district where the keeper lives, not where the plate comes from and not where accidents happen. Under the GDV model terms, your premium follows the new district's rating from the date of the Ummeldung.

That change can go either way. Moving from a city with many claims to a quieter district can make your policy cheaper. The opposite can make it more expensive, and in that case you do not get a special right to cancel. The Verbraucherzentrale states plainly that an Ummeldung gives you no special right to cancel. The change comes from your side, not from the insurer adjusting its prices.

So when you plan a move, it can be worth asking your insurer for a quote at the new address before you update the registration. Then a higher price does not come as a surprise.

Taking a car off the road: Abmeldung and the Ruheversicherung

Maybe you are leaving Germany for a few months, or the car will sit in a garage over winter. You can take it off the road (Außerbetriebsetzung, usually called Abmeldung) at the registration office. The office removes the official seals from the plates, and you can reserve your number for up to twelve months (§ 16 FZV). Vehicle tax ends with the Abmeldung. Because it is paid in advance, you usually get money back, which Zoll transfers to the bank account it has on file.

Your insurance does not simply end. Under the GDV model terms, a contract usually turns into a premium-free resting cover (Ruheversicherung) once the office reports the Abmeldung, as long as the car stays off the road for at least two weeks. The resting cover includes:

• liability insurance
• Teilkasko, if you had Teilkasko or Vollkasko before

There is one condition you must keep: the car has to stay in a garage or on a fenced or walled private plot, and you may not use it outside that space. A car left on the street is not covered.

The resting cover does not last forever. Its length is set by each insurer, and 18 months is common. After that, the contract ends without a cancellation. When you want to drive again, you need a new eVB to re-register the car (§ 49 FZV), and your original cover comes back. If you re-register with a different insurer while the resting cover still runs, the old insurer may have the right to continue the contract, so check before you switch.

If the car is scrapped or gone for good, the insurer may keep the premium until it learns that the risk has ended, so tell it promptly.

A quick word on 30 November

Most German car insurance runs for a year and renews automatically. If your insurance year ends on 31 December, the usual notice period of one month means your cancellation must reach the insurer by 30 November. Buying, selling or moving does not change that date for a contract you keep. A car purchase is one of the few occasions when you can leave a policy outside the normal deadline, and only for the contract that came with the car. If you want to switch for the new year, here is how the 30 November deadline works and how to switch without a gap in cover.

Checklist

• Buying: get an eVB before the registration appointment, and ask whether Kasko cover starts on day one.
• Buying a car that is still insured: decide within one month whether to keep or cancel the seller's contract.
• Selling: report the sale to the insurer and the registration office without delay, with date, time and buyer details.
• Moving: update the registration and expect your premium to follow the new Regionalklasse.
• Taking the car off the road: park it in a garage or fenced area, and check how long your resting cover lasts.

This article explains general rules and the GDV model terms. Your insurer's own terms (AKB) decide the details of your contract, so check them or ask your insurer in a specific case.